New research shows high body emissions during workouts, intensified by chemical reactions with cleansers

University of Colorado Boulder cheerleaders practice at the Dal Ward Athletic Center in 2018. Credit: Katie Weeman / CIRES

A sweaty and exercising person emits as many chemicals from their body as five sedentary people, according to a new study from the University of Colorado at Boulder. And in particular, these human emissions, including amino acids of sweat or breath acetone, chemically combine with bleach cleaners to form new airborne chemicals with unknown impacts on indoor air quality.

“Humans are a major source of indoor emissions,” said Zachary Finewax, researcher at CIRES and lead author of the new study published in the current edition of Indoor air. “And chemicals in indoor air, whether they come from our bodies or from our cleaning products, don’t just go away, they linger and travel through spaces like gyms, reacting with other chemicals. .

In 2018, the CU Boulder team outfitted a weight room in the Dal Ward Athletic Center – an on-campus facility for college student athletes, from weightlifters to cheerleaders – with a suite of sampling equipment. of air. The instruments collected data from both the weight room and the supply air, measuring a multitude of airborne chemicals in real time before, during and after the athletes’ workouts. UC. The team found that athletes’ bodies produced 3 to 5 times more emissions during training than when they were at rest.

“Using our state-of-the-art equipment, this was the first time that indoor air analysis in a gymnasium has been performed with this high level of sophistication. We were able to capture the emissions in real time to see exactly how many chemicals the athletes were emitting, and how fast, ”said Demetrios Pagonis, postdoctoral researcher at CIRES and co-author of the new work.

Many gyms frequently use bleach products to disinfect sweaty equipment. And while these cleaners work to kill surface bacteria – they also combine with the sweat emissions – mix together to form a new cocktail of chemicals.

The team were the first to observe a chemical group called N-chloraldimines – a reaction product of bleach with amino acids – in the gym air. This meant that the chlorine from the bleach cleaner sprayed on the equipment reacted with amino acids released by sweating bodies, the authors report.

And while more research is needed to determine the specific impacts this might have on indoor air quality, chemically similar reaction products of ammonia with bleach can be harmful to human health. .

“Since people spend around 90 percent of our time indoors, it’s essential that we understand how chemicals behave in the spaces we occupy,” said Joost de Gouw, CIRES member, professor of chemistry. to CU Boulder and corresponding author of the article. Although the researchers collected all the data for this study before the pandemic, the team says their results illustrate that a modern gym with low occupancy and good ventilation can still be relatively safe for a workout. training, especially if masks are used.

Reference: “Quantification and Characterization of the Source of Volatile Organic Compounds from Exercise and Application of Chlorine-Based Cleaning Products in a University Sports Center” by Zachary Finewax, Demetrios Pagonis, Megan S. Claflin, Anne V. Handschy, Wyatt L. Brown, Olivia Jenks, Benjamin A. Nault, Douglas A. Day, Brian M. Lerner, Jose L. Jimenez, Paul J. Ziemann and Joost A. de Gouw, December 18, 2020, Indoor air.
DOI: 10.1111 / ina.12781

“Quantification and Characterization of the Source of Volatile Organic Compounds from Exercise and Application of Chlorine-Based Cleaning Products at a College Sports Center” published in Wileyy’s Indoor Air on December 18, 2020. Authors include: Zachary Finewax (CIRES, CU Boulder Chemistry), Demetrios Pagonis (CIRES, CU Boulder Chemistry), Megan S. Claflin (Aerodyne Research), Anne V. Handschy (CIRES, CU Boulder Chemistry), Wyatt L. Brown (CIRES, CU Boulder Chemistry) ), Olivia Jenks (CIRES, CU Boulder Chemistry)), Benjamin A. Nault (CIRES, CU Boulder Chemistry), Douglas A. Day (CIRES, CU Boulder Chemistry), Brian M. Lerner (Aerodyne Research), Jose L. Jimenez (CIRES, CU Boulder Chemistry), Paul J. Ziemann (CIRES, CU Boulder Chemistry), Joost A. de Gouw (CIRES, CU Boulder Chemistry).

The authors warmly thank the Sloan Foundation for funding the measurements and instrumentation used in this study, and the CU Boulder Dal Ward Athletic Center for using their facilities to collect all the data for this work.